Not Applicable.
This invention relates to the field of health care, and specifically to the use of coverings for limbs and other selected body parts to warn and prevent health care providers from inadvertently causing injury or infection to same limbs and selected body parts.
This invention relates to use in hospitals, acute care centers, emergency rooms, doctor""s offices, nursing homes, convalescent hospitals, field hospitals, and all other medical, nursing, and health-care facilities.
There are many situations where a body part or extremity must be protected from such a hospital procedure. For example, many women being treated for breast cancer have had the lymph nodes under their arms removed. As a result, because of the risk of developing lymphedema, the arm which no longer has lymph nodes can never be used for intravenous cannula hook-ups, injections, or blood pressure readings.
At the present time, the most commonly used technique for alerting medical personnel to this condition is through the use of a temporary, handwritten note or sign which is typically taped on the wall over a patient""s bed. This procedure is fraught with obvious failings: the sign may fall off the wall; it may not be seen; it may be ignored or lost in the clutter; it may be misunderstood or misinterpreted; it may contain incorrect information; and, it may not even be posted at all. Furthermore, a patient may be transported from one room to another, and the warning sign may be left behind.
It is an object of the present invention to specifically cover and protect a user""s limb and/or other body part(s).
It is another object of the present invention to specifically prohibit a health-care provider from providing particular health-care or medical procedures to the user.
It is another object of the present invention to prevent and/or make very difficult particular predefined medical or health-care procedures from being performed on the user""s covered and protected body parts.
It is another object of the present invention to prevent injury to the user""s body parts protected by the present invention by preventing easy access to same for medical or health-care procedures.
It is another object of the present invention to reduce risk of infection to same protected body parts by preventing easy access to same for medical or health-care procedures.
It is another object of the present invention to force a health-care provider or medical person to explicitly and pro-actively do something in order to circumvent the protection afforded by the present invention in use.
It is another object of the present invention to permit detection of the circumvention of the present invention in use.
These and other aspects and attributes of the present invention will be discussed with reference to the following drawings and accompanying specification.